“You know how many hundreds of thousands of children today were left home alone?” Bevin asked. “I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them.”

He added that children who were out of school “were harmed — some physically, some sexually — some were introduced to drugs for the first time because they were vulnerable and left alone.”

Wait, WHAT???!??!?!???

So Bevin thinks that teachers should just suck it up, go to food banks to supplement their pathetic paychecks, just to think of the children and those lurking molesters and drug dealers? Really? Not sure that’s the bargaining position I’d want to take.

The Kentucky Democratic Party issued the following statement:

“It’s entirely inappropriate and perverse that the man sitting in the governorship would criticize Kentuckians who stood up today for teachers, public employees and our public education by insinuating that their presence in Frankfort today caused a child to be sexually assaulted,” Kentucky Democratic Executive Director Mary Nishimuta said. “His insults of teachers over the last year have been beneath the decorum of any respectable elected official. This rhetoric has crossed a line. As a mother, suggesting children were abused as a prop for his political rhetoric is disturbing and absurdly in poor taste.”

And the Kentucky Senate Democrat Caucus chimed in as well:

“The statements made by Governor Bevin yesterday insinuating that Kentucky teachers are somehow responsible for sexual assault, drug addiction, and neglect is reprehensible and repugnant. Time and time again we hear this demeaning rhetoric spewed, attacking our public educators and public employees. The Kentucky Senate Democratic Caucus condemns these types of demeaning and degrading statements directed at our teachers and public employees by the Governor.”

Bevin is not up for re-election until 2019, but one hopes Kentuckians remember this disgusting example of conservative rhetoric next year.